talks have stopped.........hopefully its because chris hamilton has realized he'd lose the small amount of fans the club has left...

Other than the fact that the club has a pretty decent history (albeit not so good in recent years), and that the Oldham area has produced some outstanding RL players over the decades, I don't know a great deal about the club. Would the fans really walk away if the club were to link up with a SL club?

I only ask as I was reading an interesting article about Swinton and how they are already benefiting from their link up with the Wolves, since they now have access to a standard of facilities and conditioning expertise they could only dream of before. Of course no-one knows how all this will wash out, but it certainly seems it could be positive if the tie up allows for the lower division clubs to access the know-how further up the food chain.

I only ask as I was reading an interesting article about Swinton and how they are already benefiting from their link up with the Wolves, since they now have access to a standard of facilities and conditioning expertise they could only dream of before. Of course no-one knows how all this will wash out, but it certainly seems it could be positive if the tie up allows for the lower division clubs to access the know-how further up the food chain.

The problem arises, I suppose, when some C1 clubs are left without a partner and they don't have that advantage. Some may opt out but others will simply be left out and so within a division there will be a kind of haves and have nots divide. This possibility is one of two aspects to this arrangement that leaves me feeling uncomfortable.

Other than the fact that the club has a pretty decent history (albeit not so good in recent years), and that the Oldham area has produced some outstanding RL players over the decades, I don't know a great deal about the club. Would the fans really walk away if the club were to link up with a SL club?

I only ask as I was reading an interesting article about Swinton and how they are already benefiting from their link up with the Wolves, since they now have access to a standard of facilities and conditioning expertise they could only dream of before. Of course no-one knows how all this will wash out, but it certainly seems it could be positive if the tie up allows for the lower division clubs to access the know-how further up the food chain.

well we'll let other clubs be the guinea pigs.....and yeah fans would walk away from the club if we become a branch of a super league club

Other than the fact that the club has a pretty decent history (albeit not so good in recent years), and that the Oldham area has produced some outstanding RL players over the decades, I don't know a great deal about the club. Would the fans really walk away if the club were to link up with a SL club?

I only ask as I was reading an interesting article about Swinton and how they are already benefiting from their link up with the Wolves, since they now have access to a standard of facilities and conditioning expertise they could only dream of before. Of course no-one knows how all this will wash out, but it certainly seems it could be positive if the tie up allows for the lower division clubs to access the know-how further up the food chain.

For most of my fellow Oldham supporters, rightly or wrongly it's seen as the final nail in the coffin.....and we are already struggling for air!

Of the squad announced so far by Oldham. Five of them have been produced through their own reserve team, Kenny Hughes,Jamie Dallimore, Danny Langtree, Phil Joy and Liam Gilchrist. this team has been run without massive handouts from the governing body, but because the people running the club despite the criticism they receive, saw this as the best way to take the club forward.The proposed link ups between SL and CC/CC1 clubs will mainly benefit the SL clubs and in my view have come about as the greedy SL clubs do not want to spend any of their hand outs on developing this batch of players and therfore they are getting the lower league teams to do it for them. So if Oldham hold out without becoming SL reserves, well done to them. The RFL seem to be doing everything in their powers to try and kill off the games development in the town. The latest is to end the contracts of the towns development officers. This could see the demise of the Oldham Service Area.

Focusing on the potential demise of the Oldham Service Area, I had a quick think of who has probably come through this route in the recent past. With Kevin Sinfield as the latest, I make that the 3rd National Team Captain with Steve Molloy, Paul Sculthorpe. Not sure whether Iestyn Harris Captained his country or not. My point is it will be a great loss if this all comes to an end in December due to the RFL cutting their funding to the afore mentioned posts.

Is the Development Officer redundancies due to a cut in Sport England funding?

I think that, that is the underlying reason behind it. First all the area talent coaches went, now the pending loss of the development posts. This is compounded in Oldham as the previous very successful volunteers who ran the Service Area, resigned on mass. because they did not agree with the RFL introduced Pathway, which meant the Service Area's no longer played games.

Other than the fact that the club has a pretty decent history (albeit not so good in recent years), and that the Oldham area has produced some outstanding RL players over the decades, I don't know a great deal about the club. Would the fans really walk away if the club were to link up with a SL club?

I only ask as I was reading an interesting article about Swinton and how they are already benefiting from their link up with the Wolves, since they now have access to a standard of facilities and conditioning expertise they could only dream of before. Of course no-one knows how all this will wash out, but it certainly seems it could be positive if the tie up allows for the lower division clubs to access the know-how further up the food chain.

what if the few supporters that are left decide they don't want to watch a super league under 23 team playing in their club colours and either walk away from the game or even decide to follow the super league team instead.

Carlsberg don't do Soldiers, but if they did, they would probably be Brits.